Athletics Canada/Kenny Zhong – IJF/Emanuele Di Deliciantonio – AP Photo/Manu Fernandez
May 6, 2024
There was excitement in the Bahamas this weekend as several of the athletics relay teams that will take part in the Paris 2024 Games were determined. Three Canadian relays secured their spots on the start line of their respective Olympic events, two of them winning medals against the best in the world.
Furthermore, the Canadian women’s 3×3 basketball team came within just one game of getting their hands on their ticket to Paris 2024, but the team will have another opportunity to qualify very soon. Additionally, Félix Auger-Aliassime played the biggest singles final of his ATP Tour career while Jessica Klimkait won gold at another Grand Slam.
Here’s a look at the sports performances you may have missed:
Athletics: three relays qualified for Paris 2024, two medals won at the World Athletics Relays
Among the 70 teams that qualified for the Olympic relay events at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas last weekend were three Canadian teams.
The quartet crowned world champions in the men’s 4x100m relay in 2022, made up of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rodney, and Andre De Grasse, led Team Canada. They won their qualifying heat on Saturday evening by posting their best time of the season with 38.11 seconds to secure an Olympic quota spot for Canada in this event. They were even faster in the final on Sunday with a time of 37.89 seconds to take the silver medal behind the United States who had the best time in the world this season with 37.40 seconds.
Canada will also be taking part in the women’s 4x100m relay at Paris 2024 as Sade McCreath, Marie-Éloïse Leclair, Audrey Leduc and Crystal Emmanuel-Ahye finished second in their qualifying heat in 42.98 seconds, their best time this season. Leduc, who broke a nearly 40-year-old national record in the women’s 100m just two weeks ago, ran the third relay in 10.18 seconds to put Canada in position to qualify. With Donna Ntambue as the final torchbearer, Canada finished seventh in the final on Sunday.
In the women’s 4x400m relay, where Canada has so often come close to the podium at major competitions recently, finishing fourth at Tokyo 2020 as well as at the 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships, Zoe Sherar, Aiyanna Stiverne, Alyssa Marsh and Kyra Constantine won the bronze medal with their time of 3:25.17, their best performance this season. This same quartet had finished second in their qualifying heat to secure an Olympic quota spot.
Canada narrowly missed qualifying for the mixed 4x400m relay. Michael Roth, Lauren Gale, Callum Robinson and Madeline Price ran a national record 3:14.66 in qualifying on Sunday, but crossed the line in third place, with only the top two teams securing Olympic qualification . Canada also failed to qualify in the men’s 4x400m relay. In these two relays, only two Olympic places remain to be filled and they will be awarded to the teams having achieved the two best times during the qualification period.
3×3 Basketball: Canada will have one last chance for Paris 2024 at the Olympic Qualification Tournament
Canada came within a few baskets of qualifying for Paris 2024 at the FIBA Universal 3×3 Basketball Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Utsunomiya, Japan.
Seeded second, the team of Kacie Bosch, Paige Crozon, Katherine Plouffe and Michelle Plouffe won two of their three round-robin matches to advance to the semifinals. After defeating Germany 18-12, they faced Australia in the final, the team that handed them their only defeat of the preliminary round. Unfortunately, the result in the final was not in favor of the Canadians as they lost 19-16. With just a one-point deficit with five seconds left, Canada fouled out and the Australians made both free throws to win by three points and secure the Olympic quota spot.
Paige Crozon was the tournament’s leading scorer with 33 points, an average of 6.6 per game. Canada will have one last chance to qualify for Paris 2024 at the FIBA 3×3 Olympic Basketball Qualifying Tournament taking place May 16-19 in Debrecen, Hungary. The three best teams will obtain their ticket to Paris 2024.
Judo: Klimkait wins Grand Slam gold in Tajikistan
Jessica Klimkait once again reached the top of the IJF Grand Slam podium, winning the women’s 57kg tournament in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. In the final, she defeated world number 7, Frenchwoman Sarah Leonie Cysique, against whom she lost in the semi-final at Tokyo 2020. This is a seventh career Grand Slam gold medal for Klimkait, but her first on the circuit since October 2023. She has reached the podium at each of the tournaments in which she has taken part since February 2020.
“I’m happy to be at the top of the podium, especially after my recent silver medal in Georgia. I made sure to be patient and focus on the details in the final. I’m glad everything went well,” Klimkait said.
Klimkait is ranked second in the world in the women’s 57kg category, behind fellow Canadian Christa Deguchi. A country can only qualify one athlete per weight category for Paris 2024. The stage is therefore set for the IJF World Championships which will take place from May 19 to 23 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Tennis: Auger-Aliassime reaches his very first career Masters 1000 final
Félix Auger-Aliassime came within one round of winning his first-ever ATP Masters 1000 title this weekend.
Auger-Aliassime had an unconventional route to his first Masters 1000 final at the Madrid Open. After beating world number 6 Casper Ruud in the round of 16, the Canadian advanced to the next two rounds thanks to two consecutive withdrawals. World number 2 Jannik Sinner didn’t even step onto the court in the quarter-finals while Jiri Lehecka retired during the first set of their semi-final.
Facing world number 8 Andrey Rublev in the final, Auger-Aliassime showed great ease on the court at the start of the match, winning the first set 6-4. But Rublev came back to win the next two sets 7-5, 7-5. Thanks to his presence in the final, Auger-Aliassime jumped 15 places in the ATP men’s singles rankings to re-enter the top 20 for the first time since the end of October 2023.
Golf: Pendrith wins first career PGA Tour title
Taylor Pendrith won his first-ever PGA Tour title with four spectacular rounds at the Byron Nelson CJ Cup in McKinney, Texas.
The 31-year-old entered contention on Saturday after shooting eight under par for a 63. Pendrith entered Sunday afternoon’s round atop the leaderboard. He maintained his position by playing a round of four under par for a card of 67, finishing one stroke ahead of American Ben Kohles to take the title with a final score of 23 under par.
With the victory, Pendrith climbed 49 places to reach his career-best ranking as he is now at 58th place in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is now the fourth Canadian on the list. The top two in the rankings on June 17 will qualify for Paris 2024. Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin currently occupy these places, ranked 26th and 49th respectively in the Official World Golf Rankings. Corey Conners is right behind in 52nd place.
Artistic swimming: three medals at the World Cup in Paris
Canada won one silver and two bronze medals at the World Aquatics Artistic Swimming World Cup in Paris. This competition also served as an official test event for the brand new Aquatic Center built for Paris 2024.
On Saturday, Canada won the silver medal in the team free skate, scoring 297.5853 to place second behind Japan who scored 323.3207. Canada finished fifth in the technical and acrobatic team programs. At Paris 2024, these three programs will be combined into a single team event.
Audrey Lamothe and Jacqueline Simoneau won bronze in the women’s duo technical and free programs. These two programs will constitute the duo event at Paris 2024.
Fencing: Guo at the foot of the podium at the World Cup in Hong Kong
Just weeks after being selected to Team Canada for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Jessica Gu finished one place off the podium at the FIE World Cup in Hong Kong. The 18-year-old Canadian, ranked seventh in the world in women’s individual foil, was beaten in the quarterfinals by eventual tournament winner, American Maia Mei Weintraub, finishing fifth in the overall tournament standings. This is the second consecutive World Cup where Guo has reached the quarterfinals.
